PERRY: No surprise that pit bullies won’t let Aurora election loss go

Like so many voters and poltical-ad victims in Aurora, I was counting the hours until Election 2014 finally exploded and became nothing but psychological shrapnel. But the war against common sense isn’t over by a long shot, especially when it comes to pit bulls.

For years, about nine of them, ever since the Aurora city council approved a ban on owning pit bulls in the city, we have been regularly hounded by people from all over the country, furious about the prohibition. I’m not talking, call-the-editor-and-give-him-a-piece-of-my mind-verbal-wrestling, I’m talking about vicious, foaming-at-the-mouth attacks from humans who make their scary dogs look like Hello Kitty.

And that’s what unleashes their attack. It’s when you say that pit bulls are scary because they’re dangerous. What that elicits from the most diplomatic of the pit bullies are ludicrous pictures of pit bulls snoozing with bunnies or being used as blankets by human infants that look to be days or hours old. If you think taking a picture like this is a good idea, you need to be aware that any credible veterinarian or pediatrician would tell you not to do such a thing with any dog or cat, because all animals can be unpredictable around a human infant.

That’s the crux of the argument they don’t understand. Everyone gets that there are “bad” pet owners, and that any dog breed that is abused or neglected can become a serious and deadly problem. All kinds of dogs bite and kill people and other pets every year.

But what these pit bullies can’t seem to grapple with is the fact — not the smudged math, hyperbole or outright lies — that of all of the hundreds of dog breeds living in hundreds of millions of American families, pit bulls are responsible for an overwhelming number of human deaths, despite the fact they are a relatively rare breed of dog. And the one consistent thing that is regularly reported by a pit-bull owner that maims or kills a human or another pet, is that it was totally unexpected. The pit bull that clamped its amazing jaws down on the neck of another dog or a small child and shook it until it was dead, had never done anything like that before.

I absolutely agree that there are lots of pit bulls with sweet dispositions and faces that just make you go, “awwwww.” What makes these dogs scary is not their appearance, but the fact that they are as or more unpredictable than all dogs, and when the go off, they’re exceedingly injurious or even lethal.

The whole thing is a lot like gun control, realizing that all guns can be dangerous in the wrong hands. But unlike that issue, this is akin to understanding that guns that inexplicably and unpredictably just start going off in the hands of even responsible owners are a real problem in a crowded city.

I, like most Aurora residents, understand that a yappy, snarling Chihuahua charging at me or my own dog is a serious threat. But I’ll take my chances with the raving Chihuahua over a 50-pound pit bull any day.

So many of you agree with me on this, like 75 percent of you, that I really thought my days of being called a “racist” a “hater” a “deviant genocidal monster” a “fear monger” and even, a “lynch-happy slave hater” were finally over. But the cards and letters just keep right on coming. Now, it’s a threat to have state lawmakers force pit bulls back into communities that don’t want them. Threats to sue and sue and sue to get their way. Threats that make you wonder about the psychological stability of people all over the country incensed by Aurora’s ban, which is about the same as every other pit-bull ban in the metro area.

“Pit bull dogs will be on the earth long after you are being ate(sic) by worms and your soul burning in hell,” Bob Cronk commented on a recent story at AuroraSentinel.com. It’s surrounded by similar comments where other pit bullies physically threaten those who insist on the bans. The rhetoric is as frightening as an berserk dog.

“The KKK has a similar dream…and Hitler did, too,” another pit bully says about pit-bull bans.

To one woman who gets in pit-bullies’ faces about what she calls “mutant dogs” and “garbage breeds,” pit bully Pam Loken said, “you are a total piece of crap….how I would love to wrap that leash around your (f******) throat…..it scares me to say it, but I don’t think it would bother me a bit, to remove a piece of trash like you…you are a sadist!”

It’s over, folks. The only issue left is whether there needs to be better enforcement, so save your snarling for the that story.

I’m a Colorado ski bum originally from Rocky Ford. I’ve been with the Sentinel for more than 20 years. My columns, editorials and features have netted dozens of top journalism awards.
My motto? Nothing’s sacred. My whiskeys are Peach Street straight bourbon from Palisade, and Teelings from Dublin. Send your love and hate freely. Reach @EditorDavePerry at 303-750-7555 or at [email protected]SentinelColorado.com